TERMS OF SALE
Doug Campbell directs Deadly Garage Sale. He's obviously a purist cause this is Lifetime Television old school, the way it was meant to be seen. Plenty of conniving, evil people manipulating average, moderately nice people. And you know someone's gonna get framed for a planned dispatching. Ah I love it when a long-running network gets back to their roots.
Deadly Garage Sale answers the question of what if LA had a suburbia feel to it. Not the buildings or Rodeo Drive or the good old La Brea Tar Pits mind you, just a regular house and a rummaged front yard (no pun intended). Deadly Garage Sale's handle, well it makes you sort of chuckle (these Lifetime titles are so general). Look closer though because this flick is the good kind of camp, the kind of camp where the fires don't stop burning.
The villain in Deadly Garage Sale is Trudee played by Juliana Destefano. She's young, very snippy, and quite the piece of work. It's in the smirk, the gradual off the rails intentions, and the eyes. Man, Destefano has got some real creepy eyes. She wants boodle, she wants the protagonist's house, and ultimately, she wants revenge. And come on let's face it, we need a break from Vivica trying to save the day for the millionth time (her and David DeCoteau are on holiday here, good).
So OK, Deadly Garage Sale seems a little implausible in regards to the mother and daughter running a dozen or so garage sales (they can't have that much stuff, can they?). And yeah, the antagonist stealing $78,000 from said daughter's college fund can only go so far (that's like one year's tuition at say, Stanford). Still, Deadly Garage Sale is well-plotted, pitiless, twisty, and entertaining as all heck. I'd "tag" it as a film I'd buy.
Written by Jesse Burleson